1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a sun roof structure of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to a lid regulating device of the sun roof structure, which regulates the movement of the sun roof lid. More specifically, the present invention is concerned with the lid regulating devices of a type having a lid lifting mechanism by which the lid in its fully closed position can be tilted up and down.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, various kinds of lid regulating devices have been proposed and put into practical use in the field of the sun roof structures of a motor vehicle. One of them is disclosed in Japanese Patent First Provisional Publication No. 61-92921, which has a lid lifting mechanism by which the sun roof lid in its fully closed position can be tilted up having its rear end positioned above the vehicle roof and down having the rear end positioned below the roof.
In order to clarify the task of the present invention, the lid lifting mechanism disclosed by the publication will be outlined with reference to FIGS. 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Designated by numeral 101 is a sun roof opening which is defined by a vehicle roof 125, with which opening a sun roof lid 103 is incorporated to close and open the same. The lid 103 has a rear end portion pivotally connected with a lift arm 105. The lift arm 105 has at its lower portion first and second pins 111 and 113 which are slidably engaged with a guide groove 109 formed in a sliding shoe 107 which is slidable forward and rearward. As is well shown in FIG. 20, the guide groove 109 comprises a lid fully closing guide part 115, a lid tilting down guide part 117 and a lid tilting up guide part 119. When the second pin 113 is placed at the parts 115, 117 and 119, the lid 103 assumes respectively a fully closed condition wherein, as shown in FIG. 17, the lid 103 fully closes the sun roof opening 101, a tilt-down condition wherein, as shown in FIG. 18, the lid 103 is tilted down having the rear end thereof positioned below the vehicle roof 125 or a tilt up condition wherein, as shown in FIG. 19, the lid 103 is tilted up having the rear end thereof positioned above the roof 125.
However, due to its inherency in construction, the above-mentioned conventional lid lifting mechanism has the following drawbacks.
First, the sliding shoe 107 is compelled to have a considerable height due to the arrangement of the sections 115, 117 and 119 of the guide groove 109. That is, as is seen from the drawings, the two sections 117 and 119 of the guide groove 109 extend in vertically opposite directions (viz., downward and upward) from the middle section 115 of the same. This means that, as is seen from FIG. 20, the guide groove 109 has a height of "h" and thus the sliding shoe 107 has a correspondingly increased height "H". However, the increase in height of the sliding shoe induces a need for enlarging of a space in which the lifting mechanism is installed, and thus the upper space of the passenger room is narrowed.
Second, because the lid lifting device has no means by which the lift arm 105 is tightly restrained by the sliding shoe 107, the lid 103 suffers noisy vibration during running of the vehicle even when assuming the fully closed position.